Volltext Seite (XML)
Chap. XVII. ANDREA DEL SARTO. 549 twilight of tone, he was unable to combine that appear ance with absolute neutral contrasts; especially when urged onwards by the supreme ease and confidence with which he was gifted. But whilst he was thus robbed of one quality, the balance was almost restored by the facility with which he obtained transparence, gay colours, and smoothness in the melting of tints into each other. Without hesitation, and, as Vasari said, “senza errori”, in a somewhat subdued and quiet key, he over came the greatest difficulties of his art, and if not in 1510,, certainly in 1514 deserved to be called the best fresco-painter of central Italy, not excepting even Sanzio. If his aim principally was to reach this point, it was na tural that he should be unable to stop at will to attend to the modelling of form or to achieve that which a more phlegmatic but less able “frescante” would have done. For if the latter had failed in this at one sitting, he would have tried to supply the deficiency at a second by dry touching, a. remedy which Del Sarto habitually disdained. The “Children cured by the dress of S. Philip n is attractive, symmetrical, and full of truth. A priest, in a doorway, lays the cloth on the head of a child kneel ing in front of its mother. Two persons ascend, or stand at the foot of the steps on each hand. To the left, a cripple receives charity; to the right, an aged man lean ing on his staff is the portrait of Del Sarto's friend An drea della Robbia. Fleshy rounded curves in the con tour of females denotes sensuality in the artist. Males are depicted with a rougher, coarser grain of flesh. Each party to the action has his individuality. Avoiding an ideal of perfection to which he might be obliged to cling, as we see the Frate occasionally doing, Andrea has no thought for anything but the reality. Yet that reality, if below the ideal and not absolutely select, is dignified and genuine. The drawing is good in style and invariably correct. The motions are without strain, and generally appropriate. There is a conscientious attendance to all requirements, such as wc are not always able to find at
